Suture (The Bleeding Worlds) (24 page)

He got to his feet, spent another second or two steadying himself, and moved to the door.

Sophia awaited him on the other side.

"I'm sorry, I woke you," she said.

Gwynn became bashfully aware of how dishevelled he looked and that he'd yet to shower. Not to mention having slept in the same clothes he'd worn all the day before.

"It's fine," he said, because he would've gladly sacrificed sleep to have her near.

He gave himself a mental kick.
This is not my Sophia.

"Did someone send you to get me? Did I oversleep?"

She shook her head no. "I'm sorry, it's actually pretty early. I've been here six months and I wake up when the lights come on."

"What time is that?"

She laughed. God, how he'd missed that laugh.

"About four-thirty-am. They do it to conserve on individual energy use—so people can get ready using the main light instead of their own."

Gwynn ran his hands down the side of his face.

"What time is it now?"

"Uh…" Her eyes averted his. "About four-fifty"

Oh God.

He'd been up until almost one o'clock talking to Jason and lying awake trying to make sense of where his life had taken him.

"So, um, what can I do for you?"

"I just…" Her hand gravitated toward his face. "I dreamed you when I was young."

She seemed to wake, becoming aware of what she was doing and saying. She snatched her hand back and her cheeks flushed.

"I'm sorry. It's just…you were the first. The first time I dreamed something and knew it was real."

Gwynn recalled his Sophia's words to him, 'what happened to your parents wasn't your fault.' Had she known because she had seen what happened in her own young dreams? When he'd thought back to her final words, he assumed she'd known because of the future events she'd envisioned. What if she'd always known?

"What was your dream? The one about me."

"I don't think it was about
you
, but a different you. I saw a boy, who ran away from home into a forest. He was so angry. And after being lost in the woods, that anger turned to fear. He just wanted to curl into himself and disappear. And he did. From what they've told me here, I guess he entered the Veil, but I didn't know the words for it then. I just knew he'd disappeared."

Gwynn's eyes widened. "Have you told Pridament?"

"No."

"Don't. It's…" Did he tell her? Pridament had adopted his current identity to hide his past. Was it Gwynn's place to reveal that secret? Still, it would be unfair not to warn her. "It's his son you saw. He knows that's what happened, but he's looked for him for so long, if he knew you'd seen him in a vision, I don't know how he'd react."

"Was the girl his daughter?"

"What girl?" Gwynn asked.

"The teenage girl, the one with black hair with long ponytails. She chased after you, uh, the boy, into the woods. When he disappeared, she came to the same spot and disappeared too."

Adrastia. Is that why she disappeared from my life? Until she returned, I just thought it was because I didn't have time for childhood fantasies. If she went with him back then, where is he now?

"I'm not sure who that girl might be." It wasn't a complete lie. The truth was, he knew nothing about the girl.

"I'm sorry," Sophia said. "It was silly of me to come. I just… It's not often I get to see someone from one of my dreams close up." She wiped a stray tear from her eye and gave a weak laugh. "Sometimes I try to convince myself it's not real, that everything is just a coincidence."

She wiped her sleeve across her eyes and cleared her throat. She managed a smile. Even though sadness lay behind it, Gwynn couldn't help but remember why he loved it so much.

Not my Sophia, not my Sophia…

"I understand if you don't want to talk about it," she bit her bottom lip, her voice cautious, "but… If you'd ever want, I'd like to know what kind of person the Sophia from your world was."

He did his best to keep his voice steady.

"Physically, she was just like you—same laugh, same smile. She was kind, confident, and courageous. The terrible thing is, I didn't even realize how much she was all those things until it was too late."

"How did she die?"

She slapped her hands in front of her mouth, too late to prevent the thought escaping her lips.

"I'm sorry. Oh God, just forget I even said that." It came out muffled from behind her two hands.

Gwynn felt a tremor pass through him. He saw her smile, the one that the living girl in front of him also wore, and her brutal end. She told him, 'Somewhere, there is a place where we are in love and together. You need to protect them.' Now, that seemed like a lie. He'd found another Sophia—perhaps the only other one, and she didn't know him at all. He bit his tongue, trying to draw some moisture so that his tongue could form the words.

"She died during a battle. She…saved me. In some ways she saved everyone on my world."

"Because of what she saw, or because she saved you?"

He laughed a little. Life was funny in its tragedies.

"A bit of both, I suppose."

He closed his eyes for a moment, and took a breath. It went deep, and as he let it out, he imagined all the dreams of his Sophia going out with it. She was gone, and he had to accept it. If he didn't, he'd never be able to treat this girl as anything other than an impostor. She deserved better.

He opened his eyes, and tried to see this girl for the first time. He didn't know if anyone else in the world would agree, but he found her beautiful. The blueness of her eyes and golden hair seemed so much brighter in this drab, concrete world. He extended his hand to her.

"My friend is gone. You're not her, you are your own person, and I'd like to get to know you. My name's Gwynn Dormath."

She gave him a puzzled look that gradually crept into a smile as she realized his meaning.

I am not the boy from your dream. You are not the Sophia I loved. Let's put those people aside and know who we are.

She shook his hand.

"Sophia Murray. Pleased to meet you, Gwynn Dormath."

In that moment, the endless worlds felt like they had endless possibilities.

Gwynn was shown to a shower, which turned out to be on the cold side of freezing. His hosts also managed to find a pair of plain, cotton, clothes that fit him. He took a deep breath, enjoying the sensation of having washed the day before away.

After a breakfast of some white, lumpy, mush with the consistency and taste of wet cardboard—which they assured him contained all the necessary vitamins and proteins—he was summoned to a room where a number of others had already assembled. Pridament was there, as was Sophia, even Jason was escorted in soon after. Gwynn wondered if Jason had finally decided to join them, or if he was there for some other reason.

A large table, which looked made of metal sheets welded together and then sanded, dominated the center of the room, surrounded by a number of chairs Gwynn figured were not equal to the number of people. At its head, Katsuro stood pouring over a number of maps. He conferred quietly with a small group of men. They seemed oblivious to everyone else.

After ten minutes of uncomfortable silence, Katsuro finally lifted his eyes to the rest of the room.

"Thank you for waiting everyone. We've received information which requires us to move up our timetable, so we've been ironing out the details. I know the timing of this operation has always been a bit uncertain," he glanced toward Sophia, not favourably, "so we had warned you all to be prepared. Well, when this briefing is over, you need to get your people ready, as we'll be moving in the next two hours."

Murmuring filled the room, not all of it happy or excited.

Gwynn shuffled through the crowd to Pridament.

"What's he talking about?" Gwynn whispered.

"It's the operation we planned based on Sophia's visions. Once we had you, we knew it was coming close. An informant on the inside passed along that it needs to happen today."

"What exactly do I—"

"Ah, Gwynn," Katsuro said, seeming only to notice Gwynn for the first time. "And your friend, Jason. I'm glad you could join us. In the commotion last night, I never had a chance to even explain exactly what Sophia's vision was, or how you might help us."

"We're interested to hear," Jason said. He looked to Gwynn for confirmation, who provided a nod of
yes
.

"Good."

Katsuro shuffled through the maps on the table, lifted one up and, with some tape he'd grabbed from the table, taped it to the wall. It was a schematic drawing of a large building. Based on a frontal rendition, it looked like a large cathedral.

"This is Valhalla," Katsuro said. "It is the seat of power in Asgard and the home of Woten's elite warriors, the Einherjar. It is also where our target resides." He tapped a spot on the floor plan. "The Bifrost. Initially, we were led to believe it was a bridge allowing the Aesir to cross the Veil without any of the usual dangers. Based on our intelligence, and Sophia's visions, we believe it poses a much greater threat. Our intelligence suggested it was somehow a weapon meant for conquest of other worlds. Sophia has seen it will create calamity, the deaths of billions, and a shift in power. We can't allow what happened here to befall others. Gwynn, Sophia's vision was of you destroying the Bifrost, so I'm hoping that means if you come, our mission will become successful. Jason, while there aren't any specific visions of you, Pridament tells me Suture trains its people very well, and I hoped you would accompany us and help to protect Sophia."

"Sophia's coming?" Gwynn blurted out. He turned to Pridament. "You can't let that happen. I can't…"

He looked around the room at the questioning faces. Sophia's expression reminded him so much of that fateful night at the Cameron house—determined, maybe angry, but sad and understanding all the same.

"I understand your fears," Katsuro said. He managed to sound almost gentle. "We need her. The floor plans we have are incomplete. In her dreams, she's gone the route we need to take. She's the best guide we can have."

Gwynn hated it, but he didn't protest any further.

"Don't worry, I'll watch out for her," Jason said.

"All right, everyone," Katsuro bellowed. "You have your assignments, now get to it."

The room emptied except for Gwynn, Jason, Sophia, Pridament and Katsuro, who motioned the others to join him at the head of the table.

"I have my own tasks to attend to. Pridament knows the plan, and you can study these maps for a time until we go."

No one spoke until Katsuro had left the room.

"What are we really doing?" Jason asked. "I mean, this feels like smoke and mirrors. What's the real purpose of this?"

"I can assure you that this mission's top priority is destroying the Bifrost," Pridament said.

"That's fine, but I'd like to know exactly what her vision was—Katsuro glazed over that pretty quickly."

"I'll answer," Sophia volunteered. "I saw light coming from the Bifrost and striking multiple worlds. Each of those worlds faded and disappeared. I saw the room where the Bifrost was. Gwynn was there, reaching into it. Then it stopped and collapsed."

"What's the point?" Gwynn asked. "What does any of this accomplish? I mean, you," he indicated Pridament, "told me that the Fallen think destroying worlds is some kind of holy mission. Woten doesn't strike me as some religious fanatic. What would he have to gain from doing this? Is it possible the Bifrost is for something else and it just goes haywire?"

"I can't tell you what Woten is thinking," Pridament said.

"My vision didn't provide anything more. I just know what it does and that you do something to destroy it. I mean, I suppose it could be an accident."

"I guess there's only one way to find out," Jason said. "So, tell us the plan."

Fuyuko spent her whole life in Suture, yet in a matter of hours she had seen two floors she never knew existed. The first, where she'd met Woten, and now she found herself in a darkened hall with glass-faced cells lining the wall.

The first cell had its glass face slide upward into the ceiling. One of the men gave her a gentle, forward, push. Reflexively, her feet dug in at the floor. The man's push became harder.

Her first instinct was to reach for the Veil, but again, she met the impenetrable wall. Fine. To hell with the Veil. Her body became liquid, sliding inside his outstretched arm and striking his throat. Instinct brought both his hands upwards. She took the opening to strike his groin with her knee, which brought him forward where she had the perfect angle to deliver a crushing blow to his head.

It happened so fast, delivered by a girl they obviously took for being helpless, the other man didn't react until his partner lay crumpled on the ground.

He didn't come at her, instead taking on a defensive pose, which she answered.

I've trained my whole life to fight monsters. Veil or not, two men don't compare to the things I've faced.

He threw a punch, easy to avoid, and easy to spot as a feint. She rolled inside the punch, bringing her too close for his kick to connect. Instead, it gave her a perfect target to grab hold of and flip.

This wasn't a battle she'd win based on strength. But they couldn't match her speed or level of desperation.

Before the man hit the floor she drove a chopped hand into his throat, smashing his head into a satisfying
Smack!
on the floor.

She dragged both their unconscious forms into the cell and, relieving them of their access cards, activated the glass to slide down and lock them inside.

For the first time in months, a true, adrenaline fuelled smile, crossed her lips. The pounding of her heart, the blood rushing through her veins, and the sweat on her brow, were trophies. The Veil might be locked from her, but she could still win her battles.

Cool fingers brushed across the back of her neck.

Before she could react, a word echoed through the hall, "Sleep." It wasn't just a word, it was a call, a beckoning to oblivion. She tried to resist, but its lure proved too great.